Disclaimer: I do not own Zero no Tsukaima or Destiny
AN: It's been quite a while since I've watched ZnT, so expect a bit of OOCness ahead. My image of the cast is thoroughly distorted by reading hundreds of stories of wildly varying style and quality.
Chapter 5: Transdimensional Abduction
Tristain, Halkeginia
Tristain Academy of Magic
Louise's Disappearance + 45 Minutes
The headmaster's office got crowded in a hurry. After dispersing the students from the field, and trying to force them to keep silent on the matter with threats that probably could not be actually enforced, the academy's leadership stood together, albeit unsteadily. Although the shock of what had occurred had not yet worn off for most of them, they had already begun working on ideas to fix this.
What had just happened down there was so utterly unthinkable that none had ever even imagined such a scenario coming up. In the history of the Tristain Academy of Magic there had been so few incidents of any sort involving the springtime summoning ritual that it was ranked up as one of the safest events a student here could look forward to. At least it had been, until the third daughter of a very powerful noble family had just been literally pulled from the world by some kind of monster in front of over a hundred witnesses.
That in itself was a major problem to be considered right now. The last thing that any of them wanted was Louise's mother finding out about this before they themselves even knew what had actually happened. Their impromptu attempt at a coverup was not going to hold for very long, especially once some of the students tested it. They would then have to make the decision whether or not they were bluffing.
"What in the name of the Founder was that thing?" Ms Chevreuse asked in a hollow voice. Several responses came back all at once, but none of them were in any way helpful.
"Let us start with what we know. Wild speculation will get us nowhere." Osmond, the elderly headmaster of the academy cut in over top of them.
"She did cast the spell." Jean Colbert added. "The result wasn't quite like any of the others, but she did cast the summoning spell and opened a portal to what we should assume is the familiar it chose for her."
"That...creature was truly her familiar then?" Chevreuse asked him.
"We don't know that. All that we do know is that she opened a portal, and that the creature was on the other side. Louise did not cast the binding spell before she was taken through the portal. There was no time for her to even try," Colbert continued.
"Therefore," Osmond went on. "We know that Louise was sent to wherever in the world that the creature that grabbed her came from. "Ms Chevreuse, get the descriptions of the being's arm from all the students that witnessed the event, and try to figure out what it could be. That will help with narrowing down regions at least."
"I'll get right on that." She replied in a hurry and excused herself.
"The rest of you, get back to work and keep the academy in order. Act as if the past half hour's madness never occurred. To the best you can, at any rate." Osmond told the rest of them, and they began to follow Chevreuse's retreat from the room. Except for Colbert, whom Osmond stopped as he was moving to leave. When the rest had cleared out, and it was just the two of them alone in the room, the tone changed.
"I know much of your troubled past, Flame Serpent. Far more than I ever let on." Osmond addressed him. Almost caught off guard given the day's events and the subject of the meeting, Colbert rallied before the surprise showed through.
"This is hardly the time, headmaster. Unless you're accusing me of having something to do with what happened to Louise." He shot back.
"A more perfect time, there could not be. No, Professor Colbert, I am not accusing you of anything sinister today. What I am accusing you of, is being a man that truly knows how to keep a secret. That's exactly what I need right now." Osmond said, with a grin only he could pull off.
"You know something more about where she was pulled off to?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that. I'm afraid I do not have the faintest idea of what that abominable creature was, or where such a thing would live. However, what I do have is a way to bring her back." Osmond explained.
"Shouldn't the rest of the staff know about this? If you have a way to save Louise, surely more than the two of us would be needed."
"Ideally, yes. However, this is not an ideal situation. I simply cannot trust them with knowledge of this...particular method."
"Am I to believe that there are others in this academy with even darker pasts than my own?" Colbert asked him. "If what you said is true, then you know what I once was. Yet I am here and they are not."
"It is precisely because so few share that knowledge that you are here. You have proven yourself fully capable of burying the truth." Osmond told him.
"What truth do we need to bury? We're trying to save one of our students."
"The sort that involves a banned spell. One that, should anyone find out that it has been cast, could easily result in all involved being excommunicated or even executed. There's a reason it's buried in the academy vault in disguise after all." Osmond revealed.
Colbert paused upon hearing this. He had never known of any such 'banned' spells existing, much less the details of how to cast one. What could possibly be so terrible that the church in Romalia would try to erase the knowledge of a spell? Try being the operative word, since magic was the source of all nobility.
"What does it do?" He asked bluntly.
"You have Louise's wand, yes?" Osmond asked him. Colbert nodded and produced the item from a pocket.
"She dropped it when the...creature grabbed her." The professor told the headmaster. He continued his explanation.
"The spell itself is in fact a variation of the summoning ritual we're all so familiar with. The difference is that it requires a catalyst to function. A magical item attuned to the target to be summoned, such as a mage's wand, is a perfect such artifact. When the spell is cast correctly, the target is summoned, whether they want to be or not." Osmond explained. Colbert's eyes narrowed, the implications of the description hitting him instantly.
"Ah, now you see why Romalia has tried so hard to erase this from the world." Osmond continued.
"But of course they still know of it." Colbert cynically pointed out.
"Indeed they do. But enough about that. We're planning a rescue, not an assassination." Osmond continued. "With this spell, we can summon Louise back to the academy, no matter where she is now, or what her current state is. In truth, the most dangerous part will be concealing the actual events of this night."
"That sounds safer than trying to explain to Dutchess Vallière how her daughter was abducted from the care of the academy by magical means right in front of our faces." Colbert commented.
"Potentially angering the church, or definitely incurring the wrath of the Heavy Wind. That's no choice at all, professor." Osmond smiled at him.
Tristain, Halkeginia
Tristain Academy of Magic
Louise's Disappearance + 8 Hours
Retrieving the item that contained the hidden spellbook from the academy vault was a simple matter for the headmaster. Slightly more challenging was doing so in such a way that there were no witnesses. Even worse, he would have to repeat that feat after all of this was over. The book had to be returned if suspicion was to be avoided. Things of such gravity could not simply disappear from the academy vault after all.
But that was a worry for another time. Preparations to cast the forbidden summoning spell were underway now that night had fallen on Tristain. While Osmond studied the text in the spellbook, Colbert was sent to retrieve something to boost the catalyst that would be used to focus the spell.
The actual tome called for the catalyst to be an object, magical in nature, that was uniquely attuned to the specific individual in question. There were several things that could serve that purpose, but it seemed suspiciously tailored to the description of a mage's wand. Perhaps that was the original intended purpose of this spell, and the current description was made to sound more ordinary on purpose, but that was useless speculation.
Upon realizing that the wand Louise had used for the summoning ritual was in fact a brand new one, Colbert had retrieved two older examples, kept in reserve as spares, as well as five strands of nearly meter long pink hair from her quarters. While the wand he had may technically have been good enough, they only had one chance to get it right. Crafting a stronger catalyst may help the spell locate Louise more reliably. The three wands were then gently tied together with the strands of hair to create a single catalyst that undoubtedly contained enough of a magical signature for the spell to lock on to. They had everything they needed to begin the operation.
Now, in a forest clearing north of the academy, under the cover of darkness on a night illuminated by only two faint crescents peeking between cloud cover, the catalyst was placed at the center of the expertly crafted summoning circle that Osmond had meticulously recreated from the text. Speaking no words, Colbert nodded to Osmond, who began to cast the spell. Despite acting as his assistant, he wasn't privy to the text, or the fine details of how this ritual was supposed to work. That was fine by him. He had no need to know, and did not want to.
As they did, Colbert could not help but glance around at the surrounding forest, watching for any unbidden visitors or spying eyes. As he did, he could not shake the feeling that someone was watching them, even if he could not spot any such lurker in their surroundings. That sense had developed in his younger years, a long time ago in a violent life he had spent the last decade trying to bury. But it was still there, for better or worse.
In the confusion of the day, he had all but forgotten what had occurred only a few minutes before Louise's incident. Namely, that one of their brightest wind aligned students had summoned an actual dragon. The observer nowhere to be found in the forest was actually to be found almost a kilometer above them, riding her blue familiar in a lazy orbit around the clearing. With the help of certain wind spells, one to create a small tunnel through the clouds, and another to amplify sound, she was listening in as if she were standing beside them.
Neither of the men on the ground truly noticed being spied on from the air as the forbidden magic came alive in the clearing. The summoning circle began to pulse with power, as the spell identified the owner of the catalyst, and opened a path to bring her to this place. The energy coalesced into a rippling sphere of energy floating above the center of the circle.
After half a minute, the energy above the circle calmed, and a portal formed from the chaos. Within moments, a humanoid being flew out of it, rolling around in one fluid motion. It, she raised...something. Was it a wand, or a pistol? It was both, Colbert guessed, as the weapon flashed with strange green light. The shot struck a strange creature that emerged from the portal, it's head exploding from the impact. Then it fired again, faster than any gun he had ever seen, and again, and again, clearly not satisfied so long as there were still monsters to kill.